North Korea has been having a pretty good run for a long time. Under former leader Kim Jong Il and now his son Kim Jong Un, North Korea has been doing what it wants to do, all the while promising to do something else.

Especially in regard to nuclear weapons, North Korea has signed treaties and pacts and agreements promising to halt its push to build a nuclear bomb and a missile capable of delivering it as far as the U.S. And time after time it has broken or ignored those agreements.

The U.S. has tried talking one-on-one with the North Koreans, it has tried bringing in other nations in the area to talk reason to North Korea, and North Korea has made promises that last long enough to get some economic sanctions lifted. After that, it’s back to the arms race.

President Donald Trump, however, is trying something different. He’s talking tough, saying in an interview that the U.S. and North Korea could be heading toward a “major, major” conflict with North Korea, though adding he prefers a diplomatic solution. He has sent an aircraft carrier to the area, a move sure to provoke North Korea, and maybe confound them a little. Trump has said he’d “be honored” to talk to Kim, “under the right circumstances.”

Asked about the possibility of U.S. officials offering to engage in negotiations with North Korea over that rogue nation’s missile buildup, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer replied that for such talks to happen, Pyongyang would have to show signs of “good faith.”

Lots of luck with that. Kim Jong Un and his predecessors have succeeded in bullying the world for decades. They’ve always been willing to “show” good faith, but never keep it.